Keep it Closed

So one of the bigger expenses we have in our kitchen and on our energy bill is keeping our food cold or frozen. Here are a few tips to save green on your fridge and freezer.

1. Don't turn your freezers and fridge colder than necessary. Keep them at safe temperatures, but they don't have to be the coldest of the range. Your fridge should be between 36 and 42 F. I keep mine at 39/40 as I don't want listeria problems. Freezers should be between -5 and +6F - if you are keeping things for long periods of time the colder range is necessary. Consider sticking in a separate thermometer just to make sure your temps are accurate.

2. Don't stand with your fridge doors open thinking about what you might want to eat. Same for putting away groceries. Open and close the doors efficiently. This will also keep extra humidity out of your fridge. Mine has an built in alarm if you leave it open too long. You can buy these too.

3. Keep your seals clean and working. If a dollar bill will slip out when you close the door - so will cold air.

4. Clean the condenser with a long brush or vacuum brush 2x a year. A clean unit runs more efficiently than a dirty one.

5. Don't put your stove next to the fridge or other heat source. Don't put a fridge in an unheated environment, it will have to work harder.

6. If you have a 10 year old or older fridge consider replacing it. You are likely using 2 x 3 times the energy of a new fridge.

Greening your Green

Spring and summer feel so good. Along with the rise in temperature, comes longer grass and lawn mowers. The EPA reports that lawn mowers in the US use 800 Million gallons of gas annually, making up for 5% of the annual air pollution. Refilling these motors we spill more gas into the environment each year than the Exxon Valdez did. The exacerbating fact is all this pollution is happening right around our homes. This pollution is dumped on our grass directly where our children and animals play, around the food we are growing to eat, and pollute our summer air contributing to many of those air action days. More things to think about:

• One hour of gas mowing is about the equivalent of driving 350 miles in terms of volatile organic compounds.
• One gas mower spews approximately 87 lbs. of the greenhouse gas CO2, and 54 lbs. of other pollutants into the air every year.

So what can you do?

1. You can plant your yard with moss plugs or strawberry clover. These type of plants don't require mowing and use minimal water water. Hmm, while this sounds good in theory, it might not really go over well with the neighbors.


2. Best Choice for mowing - Get a reel mower. Yep the old spinning ones. The new generation ones are pretty cool. They are lighter, durable and easier to use then their predecessors. You automatically mulch which helps your lawn with all mower types. This reduces the need for fertilizer of any sort. Watch with kids though, they do have about 10 very sharp blades.


3. Second best choice - Get an electric, battery run lawn mower. It still uses energy, but is less than a gas mower. It also is not dumping the pollution right onto our lawns where our kids and pets play and we grow our food (to save transportation energy). If you have solar or wind energy source, your mower has even less of an impact. You do need to dispose of the electric batteries properly. Your local dump will have a procedure for them.


4. Third best - use a lawn service. Their gas mowers larger and are required to have filters. You are using gas, but at least the pollution is cut by the filters.


5. Last choice - If you are set on keeping your gas mower, consider getting a new gas mower, especially, if you have one built before 1995. Small motor engine efficiency was not regulated before 1995 and you are likely wasting gas and leaving it on your lawn. Think about how you smell after using an older gas mower. Small engines are going to be required by law to improve efficiency to an even higher level in the next 3 years.

Additionally, consider looking into an organic lawn. They take some work up front, but become self sustainable and use less water, survive drought better, grow more slowly (less mowing, less pollution) and don't require the use harmful chemicals (made from foreign oil) where our kids and pets play. See http://www.safelawns.org/ for further info.